8 The Constitution and the Java, / Virtual Rare Print Fair 127

Description: The Constitution and the Java, on 29.12.1812, aquatint 1814
[Amerika 12]

"DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. Plate 4 th. The Java in a Sinking state, set fire to & Blowing up. The CONSTITUTION at a distance a head, Laying to, unbending Sails, rapairing her Rigging &Cc. on the Evening of 29th Dec. 1812." One of four aguatints, engraved by R. Havell, published by Boydell and Colnaghi, London, 1814. The 38-gun frigate "Java", Captain Henry Lambert, oft the Brazilian Coast, met the American 44-gun frigate "Constitution", Captain W. Banbridge, on Dezember 29, 1812. In spite of disadvantages, the "Java" maintained the struggle for three hours and forty Minutes and then struck, but was so demaged that the Americans destroyed her. Reference: Old Naval Prints their Artists & Engravers, Charles N. Robinson, London, 1924, Plate LXXXIX. The complete set of four aquatints was sold by Sothebys New York, Sale N08278, on Fri, 18.01.2007 for 5.700 USD. Size of the leaf: 55x73 cm. and of the view: 36x45 cm., little brownish, a small crac (3x3 mm.), to restore.